Singapore Government to partner with employment agencies

The Government will partner two private-sector employment agencies to help unemployed professionals get back to work, announced Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say in Parliament on Monday.

Speaking during his ministry’s Committee of Supply debate, Mr Lim said these two agencies, who have been working with Government agencies in the UK and Australia, were chosen because of their business focus on active, rather than passive job seekers.

Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat had announced in Budget 2017 that the Government will work with private placement firms to deliver better job-matching services for professionals.

The partnership is part of the Government’s plans to help more job seekers who are what Mr Lim described as “missed match” cases. “They are ready for the jobs, the jobs are suitable for them, but they are yet to find one each other,” he said.

The Government will partner these two agencies to help place professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) who are made redundant, and those unemployed for three months or more.

The new partnership will be launched in the second quarter of this year, added Mr Lim.